New call game
Sports broadcasters prepare to announce games without fans
Like players, sports announcers often feed off the crowd in their playby- play, but are now preparing for a quieter world without fans.
When George Grande was a student in USC’s broadcasting program, he got valuable advice from the most valuable of sources.
“Vin Scully told me, ‘ In the end, we’re all storytellers,’ ” Grande, the Hamden native, recalled. “That’s our job, to tell the story of what’s going on on the field and the people involved in the game.”
It’s advice that Grande has carried throughout his career as a TV play- by- play man for the Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals and, for 17 seasons, the Cincinnati Reds.
Of course, Scully never had to call a game with no fans in attendance, a result of a global pandemic. In the coming months, that’s what broadcasters in most sports may have to do.
As sports try to make their way back after being derailed the past 21⁄ months by COVID- 19, leagues are likely to begin play in empty stadiums and arenas.
“It’ll be interesting,” said Joe Castiglione, another Hamden product and the longtime radio voice of the Red Sox. “It’ll be different, in terms of emotional reaction. I think the descriptions will be the same.”
Indeed, as Grande noted, the prime objective is to describe what’s unfolding on the field or court. Still, not having fans and the energy they provide will affect not only players but announcers as well.
Grande retired as the Reds’ broadcaster in 2009 but still does about 15- 20 games per season as needed. He’s available for this season ( if it’s played), but doesn’t want to take games away from the full- time broadcasters who have been hurt most by the postponement.
Grande noted that, normally, he tries to let the game breathe and allow the roar of the crowd after a home run or a great catch to tell part of the story.
“You don’t have to say anything, you just let the people at home relish in that moment for their team,” Grande said. “We won’t have that. So it’ll be a little bit different. It’s the same game, your job is the same, to be a storyteller, to try to give people at home the sense that they’re there. But I think where you’ll notice it most is your ears, not your eyes.”
Indeed, as longtime UConn football and men’s basketball radio analyst Wayne Norman pointed out, there will be a distinct difference calling games on the radio as opposed to TV.
“While you’re watching the game on TV, you can see the action, your eyes tell you what’s going on,” Norman said. “If you don’t hear the crowd behind it, that’s one thing. But on radio, you’re relying on the announcers to tell you what’s going on. I think the crowd helps tell the story. They get a little crazy if someone makes a great play or a dunk or fast break or something like that. I think the crowd noise is actually a bigger deal on radio than it is on television. It’s important for broadcasting, in general. But without the benefit of the picture, the crowd amplifies the experience more on radio.”
Bob Heussler, the TV voice of the Connecticut Sun who also does Fairfield men’s basketball for TV and pinch- hits on Brooklyn Nets radio, agrees that nothing changes in terms of pregame preparation — where most broadcasters’ work is done.
But calling a game with no fans will be a challenge.
“I thought to myself, ‘ How many times, in a typical broadcast, do I refer to the crowd?,’ ” Heussler asked, rhetorically. “It’s pretty regular, as in, ‘ The crowd is really into this game.’ ‘ The crowd is fired up.’ ‘ Boy, the fans didn’t like that call.’ Or, ‘ He or she is really hearing it from the crowd.’ And the energy that the crowd brings to the game affects the broadcast. Especially in basketball.”
“In the end,” Heussler added, “you do the broadcast, and you hopefully do as good a job as you can do. But there’s two answers to this: It’ll be different, and certainly not different for the better.”
‘‘ Completely different’
Once the season was postponed in mid- March during spring training, Castiglione stayed at his Fort Myers, Florida, home for six weeks before returning to his home in Marshfield, Massachusetts, on April 30. He has no idea what to expect in the coming weeks and months.
Will the radio team call games from a studio, rather than the ballpark? Will they call games only at Fenway and not travel for road games, calling those off a TV monitor instead? Will crowd noise be pumped into the ballpark? Will there be a season at all?
Castiglione rides his bike every day, is in great shape and has no medical issues. Still, at 73, he’s in the highrisk group for catching the virus. “You think about those things,” he said. “Fortunately, I don’t have any underlying conditions, but you have to take precautions. And I’m sure Major League Baseball will. Right now, they’re concentrating on getting the players back on the field. They’ll get to us later.”
This season — if it happens — would be Castiglione’s 38th as Red Sox radio voice. He has two years left on his contract, plus an option, and has no plans on retiring anytime soon.
“I still love it,” he said. “Every season is different. You never know what you’re going to see.” That’s for sure. There have been a few examples of pro or college games played with no fans in attendance, most recently an Orioles- White Sox game in 2015 at Camden Yards. Protests in Baltimore over the prior days caused the first — and, to this point, only — MLB game played with no crowd.
Players in that game talked of hearing broadcasters from the field, something that would be a concern now, as well — particularly on the basketball court.
“The last thing you want to do is affect a player’s concentration,” Heussler said. “You don’t want to be self- conscious about what you’re saying.”
He noted that recently, a UFC fighter in a match staged with no fans said he benefited from hearing a broadcaster saying what he should be doing in the fight.
“That was a positive,” Heussler pointed out. “There could be negatives, as well.”
Castiglione has recorded re- creations of moments in games for clients when the crowd noise was mixed in later, and figures calling a game with no fans would be somewhat similar. Grande recalls going to Florida State League games where only 30- 40 people were in the stands.
Heussler has called college games with few people in the stands. His most memorable was a MAAC tournament game several years ago that began at 10: 30 a. m. inside a cavernous ( and nearly empty) arena in Buffalo. Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, with whom Heussler worked for numerous years at WFAN Radio, got a kick out of that and has forever since referred to it as the “Get On the Bus, Gus” game.
Still, none of the broadcasters have ever faced what could be ahead over the coming weeks and months.
“I always call basketball a rhythm sport, and a good announcer captures the rhythm of the game, the ebbs and flows,” Heussler said. “The crowd is kind of like the rhythm section of that broadcast. It provides the tempo the way a good rhythm section would in a band. Whether consciously or subconsciously, you feed off of that. Now, you’ve got to create that yourself.”
Grande served as master of ceremonies for the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s annual inductions ( which have been canceled this year) from 1980 to 2010.
“What I take away from 30 years of doing the Hall of Fame ceremonies is that the heart and soul of the game is the fans,” he said. “That’s what the game is about. These athletes play the game, but the heart and soul and the real essence of the game of baseball revolves around the fans. So it will be completely different.”